Want China Times
Date: 2015-04-25
By: Samuel Hui

Jason Hu, the former mayor of Taichung, said that it is not necessary for the

Jason Hu discusses his experience of dealing with mainland China during his term as mayor of Taichung. (Photo/Samuel Hui)

nation to choose a side between mainland China and the United States, since Beijing and Washington are not playing a zero-sum game, during a seminar held by the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy, a non-profit organization based in Taipei on April 25.

Immediately after Hu, who also previously served as Taiwan’s foreign minister, became the mayor of Taichung in 2001, he began to push for a normalized relationship between the city and mainland China. Eager for the city to benefit from the growth of China’s economy, Hu was one of the very first incumbent mayors to visit Beijing in 2005. “As the head of a city, it was much easier for me to establish contacts in mainland China than as the head of a nation,” said Hu. “The issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty was not really a problem between me and the officials in Beijing.”     [FULL  STORY]